The Beginnings
Matt Furie and Rare Pepe first started out on Zine. Using Microsoft Paint, Furie created “Playtime,” a comic featuring Pepe as a laid-back, mid-twenties slacker. In interviews, Furie said Pepe and his friends were meant to be cartoon versions of the early-20s lifestyle that he and his friends were living. In one of the first Playtime comics, Pepe is seen dreaming of and eating lots of junk food. This version of Pepe has a lot in common with the memes we’ve seen over the years, like his big, droopy eyes and rounded head.
Originally, Playtime was just a small, personal project. About a year after Pepe first appeared, Furie turned the comic into a slightly larger series called “Boys Club,” which he shared online and printed for friends. Boys Club depicted Pepe and his pals Landwolf, Brett, and Andy as they partied and lived carefree lives. Furie described it as showing “four best buds as they smoke, drink, puke, and party their way through life.” The comic didn’t aim to convey any deep message; it was just a fun take on post-college life. Furie said he wanted it to be “very chill and mundane and absurd.”
Rare Pepe Turns into A Meme
Pepe didn’t stay an obscure comic character for long. In 2008, Pepe cropped up on other websites when someone posted a version of him from Boys Club on 4chan’s /b/ board, along with the phrase “feels good man.” This image, known as “Feels Good Man,” quickly spread across the internet. Different versions of Pepe began popping up, showing various emotions. People who encountered Pepe online had no clue he came from a small zine, and that mystery helped him become super shareable. The more Pepe was shared, the more famous he became, to Matt Furie’s surprise.
Pepe’s popularity soared even more when celebrities like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj used his image to express their feelings. Even though their versions of Pepe looked a bit different, his green skin, big eyes, and signature lips made him easy to recognize.
Over time, Pepe memes became so popular that some people on 4chan began treating them like collectible cards. They created a “pepe market” where new Pepe images were traded, often with watermarks and funny text to keep them unique, some even considered extremely rare, like the Tritium Pepe.
Political Controversy
For a while, Furie didn’t mind how Pepe was used in memes. Even though he owned the rights to Pepe, he let people get creative with him. But when Pepe started being linked to alt-right groups, Furie wanted to take back control. He even made a comic called “Pepe’s Funeral” to try and distance the character from political associations. Yet, Furie realized that despite having legal ownership, he couldn’t really control how people used Pepe online.
In 2017, things got serious when a school assistant principal published a book featuring a character similar to Pepe, tied to real-life political themes. Furie sued for copyright infringement, and they reached a settlement. This case made it clear that while Furie legally owned Pepe, he couldn’t easily dictate what Pepe meant on the internet.
Rare Pepe: From Meme to Market
After Pepe was unfairly associated with some negative images, fans decided to create and digital collectible art called “Rare Pepes.” These were designed and traded online like special digital cards using a platform called Counterparty. This ensured they were unique and safe from offensive content.
What started as a joke turned into something valuable. People began trading these digital cards using cryptocurrency, and some Rare Pepe meme NFTs even sold for large sums. One Rare Pepe went for $38,500 in 2018, and eventually resold for $312,000. This whole journey showed that despite its rocky history, the idea of Rare Pepe became something cherished by a devoted community, highlighting the power of digital culture and online memes.
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Featured Image: Pepe the Frog by Matt Furie
